Articles Posted inSex Crimes

23 year-old Nicholas Russell was arrested for Los Angeles lewd conduct, after multiple witnesses said he exposed himself in public and masturbated in his vehicle, earlier this month.

Ventura police got a call at around 10 AM, alleging that a male in his 20s had been roaming around a shopping mall on the 1700 block of Victoria Avenue, exposing himself to passersby. Per a witness’s report, the man had been wearing army pants and a blue sweatshirt. Half an hour later, police received a separate report that the same man had been spotted at Portola Road and Shenandoah Street, exposing himself. He was seen driving a grey sedan.

The suspect managed to get away from officers, but he didn’t lay low for long. Police found him at around 4:30 p.m. on the 6600 block of Telephone Road, masturbating in his vehicle. Officers arrested the suspect and charged him with Southern California lewd conduct. A witness helped identify Russell to the police.

If convicted of the charges against him, Russell could face jail time, fees and fines, and other unpleasant punishments, including having to live with the “sex offender” label for the rest of his life. This label could make it hard for him to find employment, secure housing, and live a normal life. In fact, in many ways, the sex offender label is harder to deal with than a short stint behind bars. It permanently alters how you get around the world and also skews how society (and even people in your own family) can treat you.

Does this to mean that you’re doomed to a conviction and a lifetime problem? Not necessarily.

An assertive Los Angeles lewd conduct defense can influence not only your potential sentence but also on the “after effects” of the arrest on your life, career, and your relationships.

Consider talking to a former Los Angeles city prosecutor, Michael Kraut, about your situation.

Mr. Kraut served over 14 years as senior level prosecutor for the city (Senior Deputy District Attorney), and he maintains excellent relationships with judges, attorneys, police officers, and others in the Los Angeles defense community.

Most Los Angeles lewd conduct cases are “drama-filled,” but odds are that your scary legal situation has gotten nowhere near as much press as Kaitlyn Hunt’s has.

The 19-year-old Florida cheerleader has been jailed (again), after having sex with her 14-year-old girlfriend.

Authorities first arrested Hunt back in February and told her to stop contacting her 14-year-old girlfriend, after the girl’s parents told the police. However, Hunt continued to text with the girl – sending approximately 20,000 texts! – and continued seeing and having sex with her. (She also allegedly gave her girlfriend an iPod.)

Prosecutors had offered Hunt a plea deal that would have allowed her to escape prison time but would have required her to register as a sex offender. But based on the new allegations, prosecutors have dropped the plea deal.

Hunt’s initial charges included two counts of lewd and lascivious battery. In Florida, if you’re over 18, you can’t have sex with anyone younger than 18.

Hunt’s case has sparked massive media attention, in part because the 19-year-old is gay. Hunt’s fans argue that the young girl’s parents only tipped the authorities off because of the lesbian nature of the relationship.

The texts between Hunt and her girlfriend suggest that they both knew what was going on.

Hunt sent her girlfriend a text message in May telling her not to tell anyone about their liaison. Otherwise, “I’ll sit in jail until trial starts… if they find out we talked, I am going to jail until trial starts.”

When Hunt found out that the girlfriend had told her parents that they were still in contact, she texted her back “f**k you … you are stupid … you want me to go to jail … you are such a messed up person … you snitched on me. God only knows what you’ll do when pressed in court. Bye.”

Kelley Smith, Hunt’s mother, eventually found out about what was going on. But instead of alerting authorities, she apparently tried to cover up her daughter’s actions — an act that could make her criminally liable as well. In one text message, Smith wrote to the girlfriend: “delete EVERYTHING … PLEASE delete everything and make sure NO ONE finds out you have spoken to Kait at all.”

If convicted of all charges, Hunt could face 15 years behind bars on top of additional penalties for disobeying the terms of her bond. Over 300,000 people (as of May) had signed an online petition to get Hunt’s charges dropped.

If you’ve been charged with lewd conduct in Los Angeles, you probably have substantial sympathy for Kait’s plight. Fortunately, you can build a vigorous, substantive defense and protect your rights. Connect with attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Law Group today to strategize your defense.

Mr. Kraut is an ex-prosecutor who worked for the city for over 14 years; he knows how prosecutors work and how they think. Tap his experience, resources and connections to put up a vigorous defense to your Southern California lewd conduct charges.

As someone recently arrested for Los Angeles lewd conduct, you’re probably aware of what’s been happening with Anthony Weiner, an ex-Congressman and current candidate in the upcoming New York City Mayoral election.

Weiner, who’s married to former Hillary Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, resigned from Congress in 2011, in the wake of a shockingly embarrassing scandal. He took and shared nude cellphone pictures of himself and engaged in lengthy, sexually explicit conversations with other women. Some of these antics were so over the top that they provided fodder for the nighttime talk shows for weeks.

The behavior was frankly astonishing, even for a politician.

But then Weiner astonished the political world, yet again, by announcing that he would run for Mayor of New York City.

The chutzpah paid off, at first. Pundits considered him a leading candidate … until new revelations broke that he had continued to engage in the lewd conduct! A gossip website revealed that — long after his resignation from Congress and public apology — Weiner went online, using the pseudonym “Carlos Danger,” and traded XXX pictures with a 22-year-old woman. He also engaged in more phone sex.

All this, after he gave People magazine an interview, in which he boldly stated “[I’m] trying to be the best dad and husband he can be.”

Weiner did not deny the recent allegations.

Instead, at a press conference, Weiner told reporters: “I expected that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have … as I have said in the past, these things that I did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through challenges in our marriage that extended past [my] resignation from Congress.” Abedin stood by her man, saying “I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and … we are moving forward.”

Weiner’s story might be a great fodder for the late night shows. But on a more serious note, it’s a testament to how difficult it can be to quit self-destructive compulsions.

It’s easy to chalk up Weiner’s recidivism – playing the role of Carlos Danger and everything like that – to narcissism, obliviousness, shamelessness, or some other negative adjective. But that can’t be the whole story. Dealing with sexual compulsion is incredibly challenging. Most people lack the resources to manage their challenges effectively.

The point is that, if you’ve been accused of Los Angeles lewd conduct, you owe it to yourself and to the people you care about (and potential future victims) to get effective help now for your sex crime charges. To that end, please consider connecting with Kraut Law Group today for meaningful insight into your legal situation and potential remedies. Mr. Kraut is an ex-prosecutor and former Senior Deputy District Attorney for the City of Los Angeles.

According to a lieutenant for the LAPD, Paul Vernon, “after two years, dozens of sightings, several composite sketches, we got our break in February … Putting the case together was truly a team effort among detectives and police officers across three San Fernando Valley police divisions.”

But one whopper in the news — that just went viral — should get your attention. It concerns 41-year-old Lieutenant Colonel, Jeffrey Krusinski, the head of the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention Response Program. Authorities just arrested him on… wait for it… charges of sexual battery!

Krusinski’s (now famous) mug shot — picturing him with cuts on his face — almost instantly circulated around the internet. Officials say that Krusinski allegedly drunkenly groped a woman in a parking lot in Arlington, Virginia. Ann Stefanek, a spokeswoman for the Air Force, detailed the events to the Los Angeles Times:

Last Saturday, a 6 year veteran of the LAPD, Miguel Angel Schiappapietra, was arrested on charges of Los Angeles lewd conduct near Castaic.

Police say Schiappapietra lured two neighborhood girls to his home and sexually assaulted them. He had been patrolling the Foothill area prior to the arrest. At the initial hearing, Schiappapietra pled not guilty to Los Angeles lewd conduct felony charges. The prosecution doubled his bail to $200,000.

Pending the criminal case as well as an internal police investigation, Schiappapietra was put on paid administrative leave. The Sheriff’s Special Victims Unit is handling the case.

If you’ve recently been investigated or arrested for lewd conduct in Los Angeles, you’re likely feeling terrified, overwhelmed, and isolated.

In this fraught state, odds are high that you will make one of the following 4 errors that could make your situation much more painful, legally complicated, and generally annoying. Read this article to “inoculate” yourself from these mistakes.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (and if so, lucky you), you’ve been bombarded by breaking news in the Jodi Arais trial. The verdict is in: the woman who killed her boyfriend in 2008 after a day of sex — shooting him in the face, stabbing him 27 times, and finally slitting his throat from ear to ear — was found guilty by an Arizona jury of first degree murder.

The Idaho woman just pled guilty to six counts of lewd conduct – she was originally charged with 11 felony lewd conduct counts as well as misdemeanor charges for offering alcohol to underage minors.

Per court documents, Reschke offered a bunch of high school students alcohol and then engaged in sexual conduct with them. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped five felony counts, but the remaining six counts each carries a life in prison sentence as a max charge.